ACRYLITE® Soundstop

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What is Soundstop?

Soundstop panels are a UV stable performance acrylic which effectively mitigates noise. This material is sound-insulating, impact-resistant, and highly transparent. It provides wind protection to help meet these requirements. All sheets can be provided with various functional surfaces for specific applications, such as bird protection and embedded polyamide filaments for fragment retention (used with structure mounted noise barriers). Other options include transparent colors and translucent or opaque panels.

As one of the world’s highest-quality and most versatile plastics, ACRYLITE® can be manufactured with many different functional properties and surfaces. This material was specially developed back in 1980 for use in noise control barriers. Today, Roehm is one of the market leaders, with over 30 years of experience in this segment. Customers therefore benefit from time-tested products as well as comprehensive technical advice and support.

Why choose Soundstop?

Transportation of goods and passengers, both by road and by rail, is an indispensable part of economic progress. However, the rising volume of traffic also has negative impacts, such as higher noise levels. Sound reduction measures include the installation of noise-control barriers and embankments. But embankments that are integrated into the landscape and usually planted, take up a lot of space. That is why noise control barriers are the preferred structures in many metropolitan areas. Owing to the increasing proximity of buildings to traffic routes, these barriers not only have to be functional, but also look attractive.

Noise control barriers with transparent elements prevent the tunnel effect that is tiring for drivers, and provide a better view of the road, without casting shadows on the highway or neighboring plots. Noise control barriers made with ACRYLITE® Soundstop combine functionality and good looks with protection for nearby residents.

Besides its functionality and attractive qualities, this material withstands rough treatment and is easy to fabricate. It weighs only half as much as glass but offers 11 times its impact strength. With its unique properties, it also meets the most stringent requirements in terms of resistance to wind pressure.

This material also offers excellent weather resistance and stays as clear as on day one, even years later. There is no yellowing or embrittlement. The transparent material comes with a 30-year non-yellowing guarantee.

Since ACRYLITE® remains virtually unchanged, it does not have to be replaced in time like other plastics. In addition, it can be completely recycled, either by chemical conversion to its starting materials, or by direct reuse. These aspects, together with environmentally sound production, define ACRYLITE® as a sustainable product. To offer proof of this sustainability, we have performed an extensive life cycle assessment of the material from cradle to grave.

From production to recycling, the different environmental impacts of ACRYLITE®, including its greenhouse gas reduction effect due to the material’s longevity, were determined and confirmed in this Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) in accordance with DIN ISO 14040ff.

ACRYLITE® also makes an essential contribution to reducing the burden on the environment during manufacture. According to recent calculations, the carbon dioxide equivalent is 3.8 kg CO2 per kg of molding compound.

There are many reasons to choose ACRYLITE® Soundstop; join us in creating quality of life!

ACRYLITE® Soundstop Sheet Products

ACRYLITE® Soundstop XT Sheet

Sound reduction (STC) of 32 dB or higher by ASTM E90
Excellent light transmission and brilliance
Extremely high weather resistance
Ease of fabrication
Lightweight – half the weight of glass
11 times the impact strength of glass
100% recyclability

This material is an acrylic product that was specially developed for use in noise control barriers. It is available in different grades to meet a variety of requirements, for example in extremely large sizes, various thickness and colors, with an integrated fragment retention system and with bird protection.

ACRYLITE® Soundstop XT (3809C)

ACRYLITE® Soundstop GS/GSCC sheet

Highly transparent grade of cast acrylic with embedded polyamide filaments
Up to a 94% reduction of bird collisions versus clear glass panels
Available with black or clear filaments

When noise control barriers and wind screens are installed on bridges, they should not constitute a danger to people underneath the bridge: any fragments caused by an accident must not fall down. Directives such as the German ZTV- Lsw 06 and EN 1794 call for corresponding restraint systems. ACRYLITE® Soundstop GS CC meets these requirements for fragment retention. It does so by means of the polyamide threads that are embedded in the acrylic sheets. In the event of damage to the sheets, these threads retain any fragments and prevent them from falling.

That is why ACRYLITE® Soundstop GS CC is approved for use on bridges around the globe, without additional metal netting. This makes ACRYLITE® Soundstop GS CC much more attractive than the systems with add-on or supplemental fragment retention systems. All of this gives architects greater freedom of design and allows bridges to fit into the landscape more harmoniously. Finally, the material is extremely weather-resistant and withstands the extreme wind pressures that frequently prevail on high bridges.

ACRYLITE® Soundstop GS CC Technical Info (3807B)

ACRYLITE® Soundstop Bird Guard sheet

Highly transparent sheet with black stripes intended to drastically reduce bird collisions
Find out more about The American Bird Conservancy

Transparency is a safety factor in road traffic, but birds cannot detect transparent material when in flight. The anti-bird collision effect provided by ACRYLITE® Soundstop GS CC has been confirmed in tests conducted by a variety of recognized institutes. The material’s design of embedded polyamide threads for integrated fragment retention is the basis for our bird guard product, ACRYLITE® Soundstop Bird Guard, with 2mm wide black stripes spaced at 30mm intervals. These stripes are located inside the material and protected by a cover layer of ACRYLITE®. That means they are unaffected by potential graffiti removal operations.

These stripes act as a visible deterrent for birds and are highly effective, while ensuring that the elements themselves retain maximum transparency. ACRYLITE® Soundstop Bird Guard stripes meets the requirements of ZTV-LSW 06, EN 1793 and EN 1794.

ACRYLITE® Soundstop XT with Bird Guard Technical Info (3654C)

ACRYLITE® Soundstop Systems

ACRYLITE® Soundstop Ready Fit Panels

Fully fabricated framed panel assemblies can be easily combined with or substituted for precast panel systems
Results in an attractive, cost effective solution for visibility and noise abatement problems

ACRYLITE® Soundstop easy to Install Ready Fit panels by Roehm make specifications of transparent panels easy. They are set in an aluminum frame that are installed just like their concrete counterparts. Pick them up and drop them in place. One big benefit is their lightweight quality which means many more Ready Fit panels can be delivered in one shipment versus heavier concrete panels.

ACRYLITE® Soundstop Ready Fit Panels (3064J)

ACRYLITE® Soundstop TL-4 system

Patented through US Patent #7,220,077
Crash tested in accordance with NCHRP 350 Requirements, Test Level 4
New crash tested system early 2020 to meet MASH requirements
Offers a safe, yet lightweight system for use on bridges and elevated roadways
Specifically required where a noise barrier is to be placed in the zone of intrusion (the region above and beyond the face of a traffic barrier where an impacting vehicle may extend during an impact)
Requires ACRYLITE® GS CC sheet with polyamide filaments for fragment retention
Has been installed in nearly 20 US states as well as in Canada

The TL4 System by Roehm offers the impact resistance and safety necessary for elevated roadways, while providing unobstructed views to maintain natural aesthetics and light transmission. Used primarily on highway bridges where safety barriers and the noise barriers attached to them are close to travel lanes and therefore more prone to collisions, the TL4 system is capable to absorb an impact without endangering the lives of vehicle occupants or areas under the bridge structure. Performance tested at the University of Nebraska, USA, the TL4 system prevents vehicle snagging and occupant compartment intrusions, requirements for TL-4 impact standards for attachments to existing roadside safety features. These features, in combination with observed benefits to vehicle stability during test collisions, resulted in approval by the US Federal Highway Authority approval of the TL4 system for use on the National Highway system as an attachment to crash rated barriers.

ACRYLITE® Soundstop TL4 (3452E)

ACRYLITE® Soundstop Structure Mounted system

Customizable, lightweight system typically used as a barrier for noise or pedestrian comfort where crashworthiness is not required
Design of structure mounted system is more flexible than a crashworthy (TL-4) system

ACRYLITE® Soundstop Structure Mounted Noise Barrier Systems (3810B)

ACRYLITE® Soundstop Masonry Wall system (CMU)

Adds attractive transparent panels to masonry block noise barrier walls
Easy to install system improves the look of the wall while reducing overall installation time and project cost
A single ACRYLITE® Soundstop panel can replace up to 100 masonry blocks and allow continued unobstructed views

ACRYLITE® Soundstop Masonry Walls (3668C)

ACRYLITE® Soundstop SilentView – Transparent Noise Absorbing System

The world’s first Transparent and Absorptive Noise Barrier
Suitable for Highways, High Speed Railways, and in conjunction with standard absorptive barriers
Ability to open “transparent windows” in a typical opaque barrier
Can easily retrofit existing noise barrier systems
Complies with the new acoustical standards outlined in EN 1793-5 and 1793-6
NRC value = 0.70 per ASTM C423